Katrina Bowden Marries Ben Jorgensen: Exclusive Wedding Details!

Katrina Bowden and Ben Jorgensen got married on May 19, 2013, at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.Credit: Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for Gillette

First comes love, then comes marriage! 30 Rock actress Katrina Bowden found the former a long time ago, and on Sunday, May 19, she crossed the latter off her list, too. A year and a half after getting engaged to musician Ben Jorgensen, the 24-year-old star said "I do" at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York City.

Bowden and her beau planned the wedding themselves, an experience she says was "overwhelming." Once they got into it, though, things started to fall into place. The location, for example, was "so easy to choose," she tells Us Weekly exclusively. "It was the first and only place we visited."

Even finding a dress turned out to be surprisingly drama-free. The bride tried on only a couple of gowns at Amsale before she saw a picture of a dress they didn't have in the showroom. She came back when it was in stock, and that was it. "I knew that was the one," she gushes. "I was like, 'Okay, this is it. Let's do this.'"

Her groom, the former frontman for New Jersey group Armor for Sleep, was "really hands on" throughout the whole wedding planning process, she adds, especially when it came time to decide on the music for the ceremony and reception. He helped pick the song Bowden walked down the aisle to: a string-quartet version of Aerosmith's "Don't Wanna Miss a Thing."

In keeping with the DIY-spirit of the nuptials, the couple wrote their own vows to recite in front of their 127 guests. Bowden also combed Pinterest for hair ideas for her stylist, Josh Perez, finally settling on something she describes as "up and kind of messy, kind of like a chignon." And Jorgensen created a special slideshow/video presentation to show at the rehearsal.

Speaking about her longtime love, the actress says she knew he was The One all along, even when they weren't together. (The two first dated several years ago and then reconnected in 2010.)

"I think when you meet the right person, you just know that you want to be with them forever," she tells Us. "I mean, I wouldn't have gotten married if I was 17 or 18, but we knew each other so long ago, and I loved him then, and then I loved him even more. It felt so right. I've never felt that way with somebody."